More Love Letters Campaign @ Simmons College

Contributed by: Matoaka Kipp

Have you ever written a love letter to a complete stranger?

This past month of April, Simmons students gathered together to do just this. Inspired by The More Love Letters Campaign, started by Hannah Brencher back in the early 2000's. The More Love Letters Campaign's mission embodies ideas of self worth, pride in ourselves and each other, as well as the joy of recognizing our humanity. From what started out as a few love letters left around the city of New York, turned into a nationwide movement dedicated to spreading love and affirmations through letter writing.

Headed by a group of Resident Advisors and the Office of Student Leadership and Activities (OSLA) ,The More Love Letters Campaign was brought to Simmons College for a four day long campaign.

The first day of the campaign was dedicated to introducing the importance of love letter writing and the potential impact in could have on its recipients, even when they seem to be strangers. Students looked at letters that had been written by others across the world and to be honest, it was easy to be moved to tears at these small acts of kindness.

On second day of the campaign, 200 letters written by Simmons Students were displayed in the student center. The letters were hung inviting others in the community to take one, as well as contribute one. The method behind the wall of letters was the idea of taking what you need and giving what you can. Students were at first confused, surprised, and then moved by how one letter written by someone that they, most likely have never met,could have such an impact.

Day three was devoted to nominating people in our lives to receive some extra love. Students shared the stories of loved one's in their lives and others were invited to read those stories and send along some words of wisdom and compassion. This week, 8 individuals who are not from the Simmons Community will be receiving love letters from students at Simmons College.

On day four, we said goodbye to our tiresome love letter writing. We gathered all the letters and distributed them around the city of Boston so that we could share our love to our neighbors outside of Simmons. The movement then came to a close.

And so ...you ask about the impact of this four days of love letter writing? The answer is 400 student written letters, 8 nominee's, and an entire campus coming together to remind ourselves and each other that we are important, strong, successful, resilient, and above all, loved.